The present embodiments relate to medical imaging and, in particular, to three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound imaging.
3D ultrasound imaging has many applications, such as cardiac or radiological imaging. For example, one possible application is musculoskeletal (MSK) applications, where traditional imaging modalities are X-Ray and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. X-Ray not only uses ionizing radiation but also has very weak tissue contrast, and MR imaging is far from real-time and additionally restricts the anatomy to be in a position that might not be suited well for diagnostics. 3D ultrasound scans in real-time and has good tissue contrast, but may have undesired variability between patients and users. Due to the dynamics and high complexity of the ultrasound image formation being dependent on incident angle, probe pressure, patient positioning and patient breathing cycle, ultrasound may yield different information (i.e. image intensities) for the same point within the anatomy if scanned at a different time or from a different perspective.